Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Blessings

We were blessed this weekend to have Dr. Darrell Guder at our church for the Kyser Lecture Series. I got to hear him all 3 times though the first two were essentially the same service. Dr Guder is a professor at Princeton Theological Seminary and an authority on mission and ecumnical theology. The afternoon lecture has truly left me thinking.

Dr. Guder spoke about life in a post Christendom world. This world can be very dangerous and full of stress. He argued that the time of Christendom really began to disintegrate with the beginning of the first World War when Christian kings attacked each other in what would be a the worst war the world had seen. We now see the rise of a new religion called Secularism. This has brought about the absence of prayer in school and pushing out of God from our public lives.

Then Dr.Guder became more specific in talking about the Presbyterian church and particularly the church in the US. He used scripture to point out the way early Christians made decisions. They would gather, pray, discuss, pray and await a concensus created by the Holy Spirit. He argued that our downfall might well be in our system of voting our way to decisions. I think there is much to be considered in this argument.

I think waiting on the Holy Spirit and God's timing might be one of the most difficult jobs a Christian has.